By Bob Rouse

Bangalore

After our nice relaxing four nights in Mysore it was time to move onto Bangalore and this was not without more problems “it seemed that everyday we have been in India something has gone wrong”. I received an email from SpiceJet to say our flight from Bangalore to Mumbai had been cancelled and was instructed to call them for an alternative. So I called and was offered none as there were no flights going to Mumbai on the day we wanted to travel, great! So with with refund processed and iPad in hand we managed to get a flight with Indigo airlines at the same cost thankfully.
The journey back to Bangalore took around three hours,. Before leaving Mysore we checked the website that we had used to book our accommodation with to refresh our memories to make sure that the apartment which we had chosen was the one we were getting. On arrival things seemed to be in order as the outside of the apartment block was just as the photos on the website. Once we checked in the staff took our luggage and started to trundle up the street, “not a good sign”. We walked about 100m up the road to a different block altogether. Inside it was nothing like what we had booked, It wasn’t very clean, everything was shabby, it was dark and it had no terrace, the room we had booked specifically stated it had a terrace, we had even stopped on the journey from Mysore and bought some wine and beers so we could sit on the terrace and relax. I informed the manager that this was not the apartment we had booked an we were not prepared to stay unless we got the one we wanted, he told us that there were no apartments with a private terrace, only a communal one I explained that the images on booking.com clearly showed a terrace and a far better apartment than the one we was in but he wasn’t going to budge. I was not prepared to debate the matter anymore and called booking.com who thankfully sorted it out so we was not going to get charged. “Like I said always a problem” so iPad in hand “again” we booked a stay at the My Fortune Hotel which looked very nice indeed, and on arrival thankfully it was,
The guide books state that there is not really a lot to see in Bangalore “we only visited as we had to change our plans, the main attraction seems to be the palace. So on our first and only full day in the city we grabbed a Tuk Tuk and headed for the palace. On arrival the palace grounds was buzzing with activity as it appeared that their was an Indian wedding going to happen later in the day. Everywhere was very brightly decorated with bunting, flowers and large statues of elephants and Hindu gods, it was spectacular. We all thought it must have been someone important or very rich, as there were people setting up large spotlights to illuminate the outside of the palace, some guys setting up a remote controlled helicopter with a camera attached for arial filming, we also saw a TV crew setting up vehicle with a huge satellite link dish on top, and the colours of dress especially the woman’s sari’s were spectacular. After we watched the proceedings for a while we went into the palace.
Once inside it was all a bit of a disappointment, pretty bland really, nothing like the Mysore Palace, but we are glad we went as we would not have witnessed the build up to the the Indian wedding.
After our visit it was time for a coffee so we headed back to the MG road “most cities in India have a Mahatma Grandi road”.
Whilst we were having coffee I was trying to arrange a taxi to take us the next day from our hotel to the airport for our flight back to Mumbai. I telephoned the driver who had brought us from the apartment that we had originally booked as he had given me his number, but unfortunately I had difficulty with getting my requirements across, so I gave up. Fortunately for us a very nice Irish chap who had lived and worked in India for some for years had overheard my conversation and put us on to Meru Cabs. So I gave them a call, spoke to a really nice lady who spoke good English and made the booking, a very professional outfit indeed. You get a text to confirm your booking, a text about twenty minutes before the cab arrives then another when it’s outside, the distance to the airport is some 40km and on arrival the meter read 840 INR about £8.40 just amazing.
I had quite a long conversation with our new Irish friend and during our chat I asked if he could recommend a place to eat for later that evening, when he told us a place called the Thirteenth Floor down the MG road. Now the thirteen floor is just was it implies the thirteenth of a block which has a couple of restaurants and a club. We decided to eat one of the restaurants called Ebony , it turned out a very good recommendation, the view over the city was amazing, the food was very good and the prices very reasonable indeed.
Well Bangalore was the last city on our trip before we fly back to Mumbai.

In my next post I will say thank you to some of the many helpful people we met on our travels, and post, hopefully some valuable “Top Tips”